Governors in five states say they oppose expanding their Medicaid programs under President Barack Obamas health-care overhaul, and another 26 havent decided, an option created by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that may prevent millions of low-income Americans from obtaining insurance.

Governors of Florida, Louisiana, Iowa, South Carolina and Mississippi object, saying theyre concerned rising health-care costs may force tax increases or cuts to services, even as the federal government is promising to cover all the added Medicaid costs in the first three years and 90 percent after that. The federal reimbursement is about 59 percent now, on average.

What are you reminded of when Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin joins Southern governors Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Bob McDonnell of Virginia in proclaiming they won&#8217;t comply with the nation&#8217;s health care reform even after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld it as the law of the land?

If you&#8217;re a student of history, it&#8217;s most reminiscent of Southern defiance of Brown v. the Board of Education, the historic 1954 Supreme Court decision that outlawed segregated schools based on race.

Die-hard Southern states resorted to every legal trick imaginable to avoid compliance, including shutting down public schools and reopening them as all-white private academies.

The comparison may be particularly apt since one of the major achievements of the Affordable Care Act is to move the U.S. toward near-universal health care, providing insurance to 30 million previously uninsured, low-income Americans, including 340,000 in Wisconsin.

Needless to say, because of the economic disparities this country still perpetuates, a large proportion of those at the bottom without health care are black and brown.

But in Scott Walker&#8217;s world, all those Wisconsinites gaining health coverage aren&#8217;t his concern.
Neither are an estimated million people in Wisconsin with pre-existing conditions who could be denied coverage by insurance companies before the law was passed.

And others who previously could lose their insurance when they got sick, reached a lifetime limit on benefits or lost their jobs. And all those seniors who had to pay thousands of dollars every year when they fell into Medicare&#8217;s &#8220;donut hole&#8221; of prescription drug coverage.

Without any facts to support him, Walker claimed the law &#8220;would require the majority of people in Wisconsin to pay more money for less health care&#8221; and &#8220;reduce access for those truly in need of assistance.&#8221;

The media&#8217;s reporting of such dishonest claims unchallenged demonstrates how Republicans succeeded in spreading complete fabrications about government &#8220;death panels&#8221; plotting to exterminate senior citizens and a &#8220;socialist takeover&#8221; of America.

Of course, I don't know what the people in those other states will do.

Probably file a class-action lawsuit against their respective states.

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The last part of the article suggest that Justice Roberts would not be able to buy health-care had he not been appointed to the Supreme Court. The writer is full of shit. Striking down the individual mandate would not prevent him from buying his own insurance.

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